Abstract
This investigation examined the effect of manipulating different quantities of variable practice in the acquisition phase on the retention and transfer performance of a dart throw. Participants in the Specific condition practiced a total of 75 acquisition trials from a distance of 2.39 m. Participants in the Specific + Variable condition practiced a total of 75 acquisition trials with 25 trials from distances of 1.47 m, 2.39 m, and 3.30 m. Participants in the Specific + Varplus condition practiced a total of 75 acquisition trials with 15 trials from distances of 1.47 m, 1.93 m, 2.39 m, 2.84 m, and 3.30 m. Results of the one-way analysis of variance on the 24-hr, retention test from 2.39 m yielded no significant differences among practice conditions for mean radial error. A one-way analysis of variance on the 24-hr, transfer test from 3.76 m indicated that the Specific + Variable and Specific + Varplus conditions performed with significantly smaller mean radial error than the Specific condition. The results are discussed in regard to recent research and applicability to instructional settings.